OPINION
38 // January 2020 // www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com
© TrevorPower at English Wikipedia
The Modec BEV created a buzz back i n 2007 but a
nu mber of ch allenges saw the company col lapse
Roger Atkins
The last decade has been a missed opportunity for
UK electrification. In fact, it can be traced back to
2007, when the Rt Hon David Cameron opened a
state-of-the-art electric vehicle factory in Binley near
Coventry - The Modec Factory. A BEV proposition
targeted at the urban operating, defined mileage, back to
base commercial vehicle market. A 5.5-ton GVW load
shifter that immediately caught the eye of major UK
supermarket chain Tesco for its home delivery grocery
service, UPS and FedEx for package and parcel
deliveries, Speedy Hire for plant delivery, and a
smattering of local authorities in and around London.
Hats o to all of them for swallowing the brave pill back in
the day. Among several challenges, including a lack of
sales, minimal funding, and zero government support,
Modec fell foul of the banking
crisis of 2008 and finally got
unplugged in the spring of 2011. A
similar fate awaited Smith’s -
another UK EV player, amazingly
in the business of electric vehicles
for almost a century.
Meanwhile, tailpipe emissions
from diesel taxis, buses, and
delivery vans progressively
triggered a public health crisis
with airborne particulates, and
whilst whistleblowers such as Simon Birkett who founded
Clean Air London in 2010, took the authorities to task
over the issue, it was a can to kick down the road for
most politicians and the press. And then, in 2015 it all
changed. Public awareness of tailpipe pollution rocketed
We are witnessing
a seismic shift in the
right direction
as fast as VW’s share price plummeted, and diesel
quickly became a dirty word. Having invested
heavily in diesel technology OEM’s had to quickly
reboot and rethink a way forward. It needn’t have
unfolded like this to my mind, if only we had truly
focused on the twin imperatives of both CO2
reduction and urban air quality improvement by
the mass adoption of electric commercial vehicles
such as taxis, buses, and vans. I wouldn’t be surprised if
the pareto principle wasn’t at play in that regard where
80% of the pollution was caused by 20% of the vehicles.
Public policy, whilst well intended, hasn’t helped much
along the way.
With a solo occupant driving minimal daily miles, why
discount a personal EV car from the public purse when a
taxi or shared vehicle picks up 10 to 20 people per day
driving anything up to 200 miles?
Electric buses are an even better
bet of course.
I’ve always believed the best
match for mass adoption of EVs
was never going to be the private
car, and whilst the decade past
has been a missed opportunity,
we are now witnessing a seismic
shift, in my view, in the right
direction. Amazon is investing
heavily in Rivian and ordering
100,000 delivery vans, Hyundai is putting £100m into
truck company Arrival in the UK, and electric taxis are
beginning to hook up wirelessly to an ever greener grid
system. Who knows, maybe one day London and other
cities around the globe might emulate Shenzhen in China
where the current EV bus fleet boasts 20,000 vehicles
and a similar number of electric taxis.
Roger Atkins has been a leading voice in the auto industry for the past
30 years, with the last 15 spent as specialist on EVs. He is the founder of
Electric Vehicle Outlook, as well as an author, consultant and brand
ambassador to a number of leading companies in the automotive sector
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